Tsugumi Kuze
Biography Tsugumi is the eldest daughter of the noble Kuze family. Her father's business suffered an economic decline after the great imperial city earthquake. Prior to the start of the series, Tsugumi was arranged to be married into another noble family in order to save her family from financial ruin. This made her younger brother Hitaki upset, and he came in contact with a "cursed tome", resulting him to attempt suicide. The shock of witnessing Hitaki's suicide attempt caused Tsugumi to gain the ability of seeing "auras", a dark light emitted from a "cursed tome". This led her to agree to work at the search department of the Imperial Book Information Asset Management Office, also known as "Fukurou". Appearance Tsugumi is a beautiful young woman with shoulder-length brunette hair (the length of her hair was up to her waist before she joined Fukurou) and bright green eyes. Her uniform wear for Fukurou consists of a tan-coloured shirt with navy striped cuffs beneath a navy short puffed-sleeve top with a chest cutout and a striped ribbon around the collar. She wears it with a navy short skirt above her knees, paired with black tights and ankle-length navy boots. She is also equipped with a dagger for self-defense which she wears beneath her skirt. She wears her hair up on the left in a side-tail with a black ribbon. Her main casual wear consists of a tan-coloured blouse decorated with black frills along the button line, paired with a yellow knee-length skirt with white frills accompanied with white stockings and red shoes. She wears a black, yellow and white ribbon around her blouse collar fastened with a flower brooch. Her hair is let down with the same black ribbon tied up on the left side. Personality She is a very kind-hearted, cheerful, intelligent, serious and selfless girl. Tsugumi is also the type of person who cannot leave someone alone and believes that she must help them. This is mainly due to the fact that she had always been like a mother towards her younger brother, Hitaki. She is also oblivious to the feelings of the main male characters as she priortises work before romance. Relationships Hitaki Kuze Hitaki is the younger brother of Tsugumi. She loves her younger brother dearly and has been like a mother figure to him due to the absence of their parents; their father is always at work while their mother returned to her family home to recover from her frail health. When Hitaki attempted suicide after coming in contact with a "cursed tome", she becomes quite disturbed and constantly blames herself for his suicide attempt. She also mentions that she gets quite lonely without Hitaki around. Hayato Ozaki Tsugumi is kind to Hayato and she respects him as her senior. She appears oblivious to Hayato's advances towards her, and gets annoyed when he teases her sometimes. Unbeknownst to Tsugumi, Hayato first encountered her in a park when she was still attending the girl's school. He fell in love with her at first sight and started passing through the park just to see her. However, Tsugumi soon graduated from the girl's school and Hayato didn't encounter her again until Hitaki's incident. He can relate to Tsugumi since his younger sister also fell victim to a "cursed tome" several years ago. But unlike Hitaki, Hayato's sister committed suicide due to the serious burns she suffered after the incident with the "cursed tome". It is later revealed that Hayato is actually 'Hayato Yashiro', the man whom Tsugumi was arranged to marry prior to the start of the series. He accepts Tsugumi's decision to call off the engagement for now, but vows to not give up on her. Akira Kougami Tsugumi began a friendly relationship with Akira, after they ended up sitting in the couple's seat in the cinema, due to the individual seats having had already been taken. When the other members became suspicious of him, she and Hisui defends Akira. She was initially hurt when Akira revealed that he was the traitor in Fukurou, but he vowed to protect her no matter what. When Akira was kidnapped and imprisoned by his half-brother Takashi Shiginuma, she becomes worried for him. He soon develops feelings for her and buys tickets be with her alone in the cinema. Hisui Hoshikawa Hisui is kind, polite, quite shy and friendly with Tsugumi. He begins to have feelings for her after she helps him find clues regarding his mother. Hisui also blushes when he sees Tsugumi. He also begins to get jealous when Tsugumi is with other boys, especially Hayato. In the end he says that he won't lose to the others and won't give up on her. Shizuru Migiwa He is quickly interested in Tsugumi and tends to flirt with her a lot, even asking her out on a date. He makes it clear infront of Akira and Hayato, Hisui that he won't give up on her. At first Tsugumi thinks that he just flirting with her but later her opinion changes when she sees his kind and warm side and becomes a fan his novels. He seems to have develop strong feelings for Tsugumi after she helps him clear his name. In the end, he says that he won't give up on Tsugumi and will tell her about his master who taught him to write novels. When Tsugumi decided to continue working for Fukurou, he changed his mind about leaving and decided to stay as well. Shougo Ukai Shougo was rude to Tsugumi when he first met her. He initially had a misogynistic view of a girl working at Fukurou, leaving Tsugumi with a bad first impression of him. She also becomes upset when he verbally insulted her. However, his attitude towards her changes after he accidentally walks in on her undressing for a bath, and when Tsugumi reveals why she agreed to join Fukurou despite coming from a prestigious family. Their relationship improves when he agrees to let her be his escort to a ball at "Nachtigal", mainly in order for her to infiltrate. He then learns about her brother's incident, enabling him to relate to Tsugumi, since he was also affected by a "cursed tome", and he apologises for being rude to her. Shougo eventually develops feelings for Tsugumi and he blushes when he sees her. When Tsugumi decided to continue working for Fukurou, he changed his mind about leaving and decided to stay as well. Rui Sagisawa Rui encounters Tsugumi by chance and he immediately becomes smittened with her. During their time together, they became close friends. Tsugumi often blushes around Rui, but she remains oblivious to his feelings for her. Tsugumi was initially hurt when she found out that Rui was the leader of "Kagutsuchi", a group of University students who destroyed books, believing them to be "cursed tomes" even if they weren't. He tries to convince her to join his group, claiming that he needs her, but Tsugumi refused because she couldn't accept his way of thinking and dealing with the "cursed tomes". They eventually met again at the "Flamant Rose" cafe where Rui attempts to convince her to join Kagutsuchi again so they can be together which makes Tsugumi blush. She immediately declines and he firmly tells Tsugumi that he has no intentions of giving up on her. He also gets jealous when he sees her with other boys. They encounter each other again at "Nachtigal". After Rui defeats Professor Mozuyama, he promises Tsugumi that he will stop burning books. When Rui encounters Tsugumi at a library, he asks her to be with him when he reopens his father's clinic and she shyly agrees. Yutaka Nabari He is an old acquaintance of Tsugumi and Hitaki. He also works at Fukurou, to guard the "cursed tomes". He first met the Kuze siblings when he freeloaded at their mansion while studying. Yutaka cares for the siblings and considers them his second family, since he had lost his parents at a young age. After the "Nachtigal" incident, he accompanies Tsugumi back to her mansion, with intentions of killing himself and the Kuze siblings using the "cursed tomes" in order to remain family. Even after his plan was foiled, Tsugumi forgave Yutaka and still cared for him. She also encouraged him to turn over a new leaf and start again after he served his term in prison. Viscount Masataka Kuze He is the father of Tsugumi and Hitaki. Although he never makes an official appearance, he has been mentioned by Tsugumi on several occasions. Prior to the start of the series, his business was in economic decline and in order to prevent the family from falling into financial ruin, he decided to marry off his eldest daughter, Tsugumi, as he would receive a loan from the groom's family. Tsugumi hesitantly went along with it, as she was aware of the family situation. However, it is shown that he does care for both his children despite his absence. He agrees to call off the engagement for the time being after learning of Hitaki's attempted suicide, while expressing his relief that Hitaki hadn't lost his life. Koruri Masaki She is Tsugumi's best friend and former senior at the girl's school they used to attend. She likes to tease Tsugumi and enourages her to not be embarrassed to do things such as going to see a movie by herself. When Tsugumi learns that she has a crush on Yoshikiri, she does her best to help Koruri confess her feelings to him. Shiori Tokiyama She is Tsugumi's boss at Fukurou. They have a friendly relationship and can relate to each other, since Shiori lost her husband due to a "cursed tome". Though it was Hayato who initially scouted Tsugumi to join Fukurou, Shiori hired her after formally discussing the job to her. Shiori is also very supportive of Tsugumi and expresses concern for her safety, even almost firing her after learning that she had gone to "Nachtigal" with Shouko. When Tsugumi asked to continue working at Fukurou, Shiori was overjoyed. Takashi Shiginuma He first met her when she attended a party he hosted at "Nachtigal" with Shougo. Takashi soon developed an interest in Tsugumi after learning about her ability of seeing "auras", and because of her beauty. He attempted to convince her to join his organisation "Karasu" to make use of her abilities, but she refused. Takashi started threatening Tsugumi by harming her loved ones unless she joined "Karasu", causing her to become paranoid. He eventually kidnapped Tsugumi back to "Nachtigal" where he reveals to her that he also has the ability to see "auras". Takashi also attempts to rape her with intentions of having her impregnated with his child who would have both their abilities to see "auras" and move to Europe as part of his plan. However, his plan was foiled when the members of Fukurou came to save her and he was arrested in the end. Shouko Shiginuma She first met her when she attended a party at "Nachtigal" with Shougo. They met again when Tsugumi was trying to help Hisui find clues regarding his mother. Shouko became fond of Tsugumi and invited her to "Nachtigal" to become more acquainted with each other. They developed a friendly relationship until Tsugumi reluctantly broke her promise by bringing Hisui along with her since Shouko knew Hisui's mother, Hiwako. Although Shouko told Tsugumi that they are to never see each other again, she helps her avoid getting recaptured by Takashi's henchmen after learning that Tsugumi was kidnapped by her husband. They rekindled their friendship when Shouko hid Tsugumi in her room and served her tea as an apology for what Takashi tried to do to her. When Tsugumi offered Shouko the chance to escape with her, Shouko declined saying that it is her choice to remain here in order to stop her husband from committing crimes. As they part ways, Shouko helps Tsugumi escape from "Nachtigal". Trivia * She loves singing. ** In the third episode of the anime adaption, Tsugumi was singing "The Blue-Eyed Doll" (Aoi me no ningyo; 青い眼の人形) at the beginning of the episode. ** She was in the Chorus Club at the girl's school she used to attend. * She grew up taking care of Hitaki since their mother had frail health and had to return to her family home to recover. * While she was still attending the girl's school, she had a string of admirers whom she flat-out rejected. * She enjoys cooking. * Her favourite food is hot cakes, which she often makes with Hitaki and her steward. * Her favourite drink at the "Flamant Rose" cafe is milkshake. * Tsugumi (鶫) is Japanese for "dusky thrush". Category:Characters Category:Female Characters